Worried About 'WannaCry'? You Should Have Listened To Julian Assange

A widespread computer virus attack known as ‘WannaCry’ has been compromising computers with obsolete operating systems across the world. This should be the opening sentence of just about every article on this subject, but unfortunately it is not.

The virus does not attack modern computer operating systems, it is designed to attack the Windows XP operating system that is so old, it was likely used in offices in the World Trade Center prior to September 11 2001, when the buildings collapsed. Windows XP was first released on 25 August, 2001.

Furthermore, early vulnerabilities in modern Windows systems were almost instantly patched up by Microsoft as per the fact that such operating systems are constantly updated.

The obsolete XP system is simply out of the loop.

A child born on the release date of Windows XP is now on the verge of his or her 17th birthday. Feeling old yet?

The fact of the matter is that governments and businesses around the world should not only feel old, they should feel humiliated and disgraced.

With the amount of money governments tax individuals and private entities, it is beyond belief that government organisations ranging from some computers in the Russian Interior Ministry to virtually all computers in Britain’s National Health Service, should be using an operating system so obsolete that its manufacturer, Microsoft, no longer supports it and hasn’t done for some time.

Perhaps in order to save money, governments should also use prop-planes from the 1940s to conduct recon missions?

The scathing reality of this attack is that Julian Assange warned both private and public sectors to be on guard against known vulnerabilities in such systems, vulnerabilities Wikileaks helped to expose. Assange even offered to help companies to get their digital security up to date.

The fact that Assange’s plea fell on deaf ears must bring further shame to all those impacted by the ‘WannaCry’ attacks who refused to listen to Assange and get with the times.

As it is, the technology used in the hacking/malware incident was created by America’s National Security Agency (NSA).

World famous whistle-blower Edward Snowden had something to say about that,

If NSA builds a weapon to attack Windows XP—which Microsoft refuses to patches—and it falls into enemy hands, should NSA write a patch? https://t.co/TUTtmc2aU9

The fact is that, if only governments and mega-corporations took precautions to ensure actual safety measures were in place, rather than engaging in bogus fear-mongering in order to conceal their own incompetence and lack of modern technology, the people that such bodies are supposed to protect would be safe rather than misled and exposed to threats.

The blame for today’s attack can and should be equally shared by the hackers themselves and by those who patently ignored the warnings of Julian Assange, who advised the wider world to get clever, get secure and get modern upon the release of Vault 7 by Wikileaks.

When there is a wolf at your door, it is unwise to blame the person pointing out the presence of the hungry wolf. Those who attack Julian Assange for pointing out the wolf of un-secured computer systems are doing just that.

In real democracies, people would be brought before tribunals to justify their supreme dereliction of duty. In the apathetic corporatist liberal west, the story will be swept under the rug.

And what about MS itself for wirting crappy, leaky software? They had long enough to fix major vulnerabilities in XP (Known as "Upgarding to viabiity" in the trade) and, IMHO, they have a responsibility to fix major vulnerabilitie which become known even after they have stopped providing routine updates. This is the equivalent of a car manfacturer refusing to supply spare parts for a car of more than a ain agae so as to force consumers into bung a new car. A/k/a slimeball markeiting. And if the software were written prope in the first place, this wouldn't happen. How often do you hear of major vulnerabilities in an Apple OS?

will there be a senate / congress hearing on this issue? Only a senate / congress hearing will bring light to this issue and restore justice. Congressional / senate hearings have been very successful tools ever since to shed light on critical issues contributing to the world become a better and more diversified place. Hearings (as elections) are indispensable in our tall standing democracy, for our duty as a moral compass of the world.

The British NHS shouldn't even use an OS like WIndows. They are big enough and individual enough to have a simple, basic, in-house OS written for them. Same goes for any large .gov department.

Akin to using Autocad to sketch a drawing on the back of a cigarette packet, an OS like Windows is overly complicated therefore susceptible to to many, many, many corruptions and exploits such as those it has had to be 'corrected for' over the years.

Ba-ha-ha-ha!! You've obviously never worked with any of the British Gov controlled departments. Upgrading computer software is a "waste of money", like paying junior doctors or nurses for the actual time that they put in. Most NHS IT staff are well aware of the vulnerabilities, they're just being ignored.

Windows is a victim of its own success. Microsoft does write some terrible software, but in all that crap there occasionaly rises a stable platform. XP was the first of those post NT4, next up is Windows 2008R2 then Windows 8 or Server 2012. I wouldn't touch Win 10 with a bargepole unless I like the idea of Microsoft rummaging through my server and forcing internet connectivity out of my control.

Windows is an "open" OS, thats why there are so many different programs for it, older Mac OSes are closed, hence fewer programs. That openess combined with MS's terrrible product testing means more holes. Note: these are comparative and not a judgement, just a description. Windows prevalance means that the vast majority of hackers and hacker organisations target it because thats where the "money" is. Also, Apple really pushes Mac OS upgrades so very few people are on older platform versions. Microsoft charges for upgrades unless you're lucky enough to get a free upgrade - aka involuntary Beta testing.

Bottom-line: yes the NHS should have upgraded from out of support versions, but no one was willing to pay for it. Now that they've been compromised, expect the UK Gov to throw a whole bunch of taxpayer money at it and claim that they're investing in the NHS.

Oh, and for those of you crowing about the lack of penetation for Mac & Linux. You're vulnerable, you just haven't been told what those vulnerabilities are yet.

I remember getting a letter asking if I would like to opt out of "The Spine", a NHS computer system loaded with all of my health data available to anyone with a dongle switch. They had lost 300 dongles before the system was up and running. It was doomed to failure and millions of pounds were wasted on it. I guess they will do the same again but waste even more this time.

This would be a non-event if XP hadn't shipped with an encrypted file system option. I suspect only XP using NTFS is susceptible. Which means the NHS admins are morons. You can't re-encrypt an encrypted FS.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Sorry you are beyond incorrect here. Go install any piece of software. You will find you have to agree to the license terms. That's because, while YOU OWN the car, you ONLY have a right to USE the software OWNED BY THE PUBLISHER as described in that lisence. For over 20 years prior to XP's demise, Microsoft, crApple, Sun, Oracle, Cisco and everyone else (Yes even Linux and FreeBSD [really, no huh, well go find the current security releases for say...FreeBSD 5.1. I'm not going to wait cuz they don't exist]) rolled out new software and PUBLISHED the time line that the old software would be supported. I'm no Micro$oft fanboy, but Micro$oft massively extended life support for XP beyond the 3rd service pack, and for embeded devices they supported via special manufacturer lisencing XP even FURTHER. So this is not on Micro$oft. If you are still running XP that's on YOU. If you are running Win7 and have NO PLANS in place yet to move to Win10, get moving, or the next one's on you as well.

So as to everyone else. Should MSFT open its source code, there would be multiple distributions safer and better than the original. Linux is open, including its kernel and has distribs orders of magnitude safer than your out of the box XP. What MSFT is worried about is not security of its users, but competition with its own legacy systems.

Here, here! And any work that YOU do you should have to update and repair for all your days and your children's and so on for all eternity. Imagine the home owner 25 years ago whose house you built needing to replace a garage door opener....the nerve of those builders.

And that unfixed '75 Pinto I have....Ford better fix it for free and pay me for all those years of danger I have been in.

Gosh the list is endless. IT'S ALL EVERYONE ELSE'S FAULT CUZ I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT BUT WANT IT ANYWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know this is probably not an answer for everyone, but anyone who has never tried Linux as an FU to Microsoft should look into ChaletOS. It is very Windows-like and runs on Linux. A little online research and anyone with a small amount of computer know-how can dual boot any Windows-based machine into Linux/ChaletOS so that Windows is still there when you really need it for work or whatever, but you can run Linux when you are doing things like posting here.

Anything is possible, but what proof do you have that MS is involved in Linux? I would note that Linux is free and if even 10% of current Windows users switched it would put a serious dent in MS income.

From your link: "Microsoft still isn't positioning this as a way of running Linux services in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux."

So Windows is going to "allow" some Linux programs to work with Windows. Sounds like catch up to me, not like Windows taking over Linux.

We just did a Linux re load onto an old Laptop, Solus Budgie or something. It's very functional and installed simply, I tried to convert an old XP to Linux about 2 years ago and it would not work, it has obviously advanced a lot in just 2 years.

We will always keep a few Microsoft machines around but would absolutely like to keep our Toe in the water and get familiar with Linux, I highly recommend it for just a cheapo Craigslist computer or whatever you can get for 50 bucks. Stickin it to the man, operating outside the box, as best as we can, each and every day.

Consider the amazing people and the millions of man hours that is building Linux, given freely, because many people believe that mega Corp computing should just go and piss up a rope. Free. Linux. Sexy. Future. Cool.

The path from dedicated servers to virtualisation and now into the cloud, be it AWS or Azure or other solutions, reminds me of a vortex. You can't escape it, because cost advantages and efficiency are unbeatable, but in the end, it sucks you in and drowns you.